A MAN with a history of violence threatened to break a police constable’s “f***ing neck” while he was strangling him.

Thug Benjamin Plimmer, 36, started to choke Liam Toomey after he and colleagues had been called to a domestic incident in Tredegar at around midnight.

The defendant had gone to his ex-girlfriend’s house uninvited to give her a present after drinking 10 pints of lager, Laurence Jones, prosecuting said.

Plimmer had smashed his former partner’s bedroom window when she wouldn’t leave him in.

After police arrived, PC Toomey was attacked by Plimmer after he found him hiding in brambles in the garden at the back of the property.

A colleague’s body worn video captured the assault and the unpleasant footage was played at Cardiff Crown Court.

The defendant can be heard shouting: “I’ll break your f***ing neck.”

It took several police officers to get Plimmer to release his grip around PC Toomey’s throat.

The victim was taken to hospital after suffering a minor head injury and soreness to his neck.

“The crown would submit that there was a prolonged use of substantial force and there was strangulation/suffocation involved in terms of the arms being around the officer's neck for a period time,” Mr Jones added.

When Plimmer was interviewed following his arrest, he told them: “I’m not a violent person. I was drunk at the time.”

The defendant, of Scwrfa Road, Scwrfa, Tredegar pleaded guilty to assault by beating of an emergency worker and criminal damage.

The offences occurred on Saturday, May 25.

He has served custodial sentences in the past for robbery, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and battery.

Sol Hartley representing Plimmer told the court: “This offending stems from his misuse of alcohol.”

His barrister added how his client had worked at the Yuasa battery factory in Ebbw Vale before being remanded in custody and that job was still available to him.

The judge, Recorder Jonathan Rees KC, told Plimmer: “The use of strangulation or asphyxiation is something which always comes with an inherent risk of serious harm.

“The officer was in fear he would lose consciousness.”

He jailed the defendant for 12 months and ordered him to pay a £187 surcharge following his release from prison.

  • Gwent Police refused to release a mugshot of the defendant